


A Little Unusual

by Eloarei



Series: Hunter x Hunter mini-AUs [3]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Kid Fic, Toddlers, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-02-08
Packaged: 2018-01-11 16:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1175080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eloarei/pseuds/Eloarei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not a year after Ging drops off his son with his family on Whale Island, he returns again with another child. But this one is clearly not his, if the pale complexion and snow-white hair are any indication.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Unusual

**Author's Note:**

> Because my life is nothing if not a collection of random AUs floating around in an otherwise fairly useless body.

She'd hoped, of course, but never really _expected_ to see Ging again, after he'd come around and dropped an infant in her arms and promptly left. ('Promptly' was somewhat an exaggeration on her part; actually, he'd stayed around a good day and a half, long enough to tell them mostly what they didn't care about and nothing they were really dying to know, such as who the child's mother was. (They'd since decided that it really didn't matter who had birthed him, because he was theirs now.) But it had seemed very prompt at the time, when she was caught up in the whirlwind of his return and rather hoping it would be permanent.) But here he was, at Mito's doorstep again.   
  
She almost dropped Gon, she was so surprised. Ging probably would have frowned upon that, as even deserter fathers surely care enough about their sons to hope for their continued survival, or so Mito assumed. Not that it mattered to her exactly what Ging thought. She was beyond trying to impress him; she was a mother now, and had taken to it quite well. If she'd dropped Gon and cracked his head open, it would be her loss more than anyone else's. Consequently, she found she was rather mad at Ging for surprising her so badly.   
  
Except it wasn't his sudden appearance that surprised her so much that she'd almost dropped her darling nephew, it was what he held casually slung on his right hip.   
  
“Mito!” He quirked a smile at her that seemed to suggest there were no problems in the world. “Can I come in?”   
  
Naturally, he could come in. They were family, after all, and she loved him regardless of how much she hated him sometimes. But today, for this moment at least, her answer was a resounding, “No you may not!” She left her mouth the slightest bit open for a stunned effect, although this was not entirely intentional.   
  
Ging looked almost shamed, but more likely the look was the sort that was supposed to inspire pity. “You wouldn't leave a man outside all night when he's got a baby in his arms, would you?”   
  
“I very well might!” she said, planting her feet more firmly in the doorway, and shifting her hold on Gon, who had started to wiggle around in her arms. (He was getting to that age where he was constantly on the move; if his little feet couldn't be moving on the ground, they'd surely be climbing all over your arms and shoulders.) She eyed Ging and the new baby critically. “It's not been a year. You must have been busy.”   
  
Ging rolled his eyes with a smirk, as if he thought it was obvious that wasn't the case, but sort of wished it was. “I'm not this one's father.”   
  
Looking closer, Mito could see that was the truth. This new little one, well he couldn't even have been had in the time since she'd seen Ging last; he seemed around the same age as Gon. And he didn't look a thing like Ging, not in eyes, or skin tone, or structure, and definitely not in his pale, nearly-white puff of hair. _'The mother's illegitimate other son?'_ she wondered for a moment, before realizing the little boy didn't look a thing like Gon either, and would have had to have been his twin to be from the same mother, based on her assumption of his age. (She also thought, suddenly, that it might have been _Gon_ who was the illegitimate one; Mito still had no idea who the mother was, or what her relationship was with Ging, or if Ging had magically just created a child from thin air. She wouldn't have been terribly surprised.)   
  
“Come in, then,” she told him, moving aside and holding the door open. She decided she could even wait until later to berate him for dropping by unannounced after so long. (Again, it was not really _that long_ , particularly not in comparison to other times he'd been gone, but his sudden arrival made it seem longer.)   
  
Mito ushered Ging into the kitchen and nudged him down onto a wooden dining chair, then dumped Gon in his lap right next to the other little one. She decided he could handle it for a few minutes while she made tea, since it was most likely exactly what he was expecting her to do for the next few years. Ging was a surprising and spontaneous man, but it didn't take a genius to predict that he wasn't planning to take this pale child with him on his journeys when he couldn't even manage his own flesh-and-blood son. Already Mito was getting used to the idea that she was to be a mother a second time, and it didn't really bother her. She really had taken to it well. But she wasn't going to go without answers as to the child's parentage like she had last time, and the curiosity was getting to her, so she hurried along with the tea.   
  
By the time she brought out the two steaming mugs and the two warm bottles of milk, Ging had dozed off right along with the two children. His head was hanging back, adam's apple pointing up sharply, and the toddlers had gravitated to his middle and curled up together at his chest, clinging to each other. She felt a heartstring twang in her chest and she bit down on her lower lip, unsure if her mouth had been planning to grin or wrinkle into a silent sob. She sat down quietly across the table from them and sipped her tea. She could let them doze a few minutes.   
  
Her mother came home as she was nursing her second cup (the one that would have been Ging's; he could have had it if he'd been awake), and simply raised an eyebrow at the bundle of sleeping boys. Mito shrugged, so Grandma just shook her head and smiled, and climbed the stairs to her bedroom.   
  
“So she's doing well then? Grandma?” Ging opened his eyes slowly and tilted his head back towards Mito.   
  
“Fine,” she replied. “Just busy at the market as usual, and helping me take care of Gon.”   
  
Ging nodded slightly, just a tiny tip of his head. “Good. And you?”   
  
“The same. Taking care of Gon.”   
  
He nodded again, but he didn't quite look at her. She sipped her tea and stared him down. He shifted the children in his arms, slid them down into his lap so he could sit up properly. They were quiet a few minutes.   
  
“You like taking care of him?” Ging asked. He looked down at Gon, studied him like he was a new but vaguely familiar species of creature.   
  
“I don't regret it, if that's what you're asking.” Mito sat her teacup down and really looked her cousin in the eye. “I know I said you shouldn't be allowed to raise him, but-...” She bit down on her cheeks in frustration, remembering everything that had gone down the last time Ging had come around, that whirlwind of family drama that had resulted in her sudden motherhood. Her personal version of the tale, the one she told others and the one she thought to herself when she was a little overwhelmed with trying to raise Gon properly, wasn't exactly the truth, but she still maintained it was fair. Ging was not meant to be a single father. “I didn't mean for you to actually leave! I wanted you to stay. I wanted us all to raise him as a family!”   
  
If she expected him to react strongly to that, to yell and assert that she'd forced him to leave, or say he'd always wanted to stay, she would be surprised. The corner of Ging's mouth quirked up in a humorless smile and he slid his eyes across the table to finally meet hers. “No, you were right. The world is dangerous. A pro Hunter shouldn't be raising a child. I think I knew that when I brought him here, I just needed you to tell me. Mito, you always were the reasonable one, even though you're so young.” His smirk melted into a genuine smile. “Gon couldn't ask for a better mother.”   
  
Surprised tears welled up in Mito's eyes suddenly, but she blinked them away and breathed out a short laugh. “Except for his real one, maybe.”   
  
Ging waved that sentence away before it could settle firmly down on the table between them. “Don't even try. I didn't tell you then and I'm not planning on talking about it now.”   
  
Mito hummed, unsurprised but not disappointed. She really didn't particularly want to know, but it was hard to resist asking. In a way, she was glad Ging was so tight-lipped about it. Knowing wouldn't make a difference to how she felt about Gon, or Ging himself, and he'd likely tell her if or when he thought it was important. Instead, she focused on his reason for coming here today. “What about that one?” She nodded towards the white fluffball, who was currently drooling in Gon's hair.   
  
“Like I said, he's not mine.” Ging ruffled the toddler's hair anyway, in an affectionate way that was a little at-odds with his words.   
  
“But whose was he?” Mito asked, particular about the _was_ because it was obviously he wasn't theirs anymore.   
  
“He's an orphan,” Ging said, scratching his fingers through the thick white hair and making the child squirm further into him.   
  
Mito frowned. “So his parents are dead?”   
  
Ging's answer was almost immediate, but Mito knew him well enough to tell he'd had to think about what exactly he was going to say. “He doesn't have any family to rely on. Except, I was hoping, for you and Grandma.”   
  
Of course Mito already knew what she'd say. She didn't have a choice. What kind of person could heartlessly turn away a child who needed them, even one who was less cute than this adorable bundle of fluff?   
  
“What's one more?” Ging asked, smiling charmingly when Mito didn't answer quickly enough. “You've already got Gon; if he's anything like me, any other child will be a piece of cake in comparison.”   
  
Mito hung her head to hide her smile. “You don't know the half of it,” she said. _'Because you're never around'_ was obvious enough she didn't bother to add it. She raised her head, and they looked at each other for a while, both maybe trying to see the child they knew from years before hidden in the other's eyes.   
  
“I'll have to talk to Mom about it,” she conceded, although they both knew that meant yes. They'd known before they'd spoken a word. Asking was just a formality. “So, do you know anything about him? His name?”   
  
Ging nodded and shifted so he could lift the new one up in his arms, gesturing for Mito to come around and take him. “Killua, apparently,” he said.   
  
“That's unique,” Mito said quietly, stepping lightly up to Ging and taking the mostly-asleep child up in her own arms. “Killua...” She studied his calm face and wondered about his past, what sort of legacy his blood held. “Does he have a family name? Do you know?”   
  
Shifting Gon around to free his other arm, Ging reached down and fumbled in his bag for a minute. “There's this,” he said, handing a little blanket to Mito. It was monogrammed with the letter Z.   
  
Mito took it and looked closely at the expensive embroidery. “It's lovely. His family must have been well off. Still, it's not much to go on.”   
  
Ging shrugged and stood carefully, doing his best not to jostle Gon more than he needed to. “Freecss'll have to do, then.”   
  
_'Killua Freecss,'_ Mito thought, snuggling the child closer. _'I hope you like it.'_ She imagined again what might have taken his family from him, and an empathetic bubble caught in her chest as she felt the terror and loneliness of having no one to love and care for you. _'I will do my best by you, Killua, I promise. You and Gon, both.'_ She kissed his forehead lightly and he stirred in her arms. His little eyes cracked open and she was surprised by the intense shade of blue that peeked out at her.   
  
“How unusual,” she said, regarding Killua's beautiful but strange coloring.   
  
“That won't stop you, right?” Ging asked, reaching to grab the second tea cup and draining the remaining lukewarm liquid and soggy dregs.   
  
“Of course not,” Mito said, and she couldn't help the fond smile that found its way to the corners of her mouth and eyes. “You're fairly unusual as well, after all.”   
  
Ging laughed but didn't deny it. Hunters had to be a little unusual. Mito knew this, and she knew from experience that it didn't stop at the individual. It spread across every person and place that came into contact with them. It permeated their family. She looked again at little Killua, and thought about his fancy monogrammed blanket, probably from a fancy mansion in the city somewhere, far and away from a tiny little island in the middle of nowhere.   
  
“I'm sorry,” she told him. He blinked sleepily up at her. “I hope you don't mind being raised a little unusually. It might not be as good as what you're used to, but I hope you'll grow to love it.”   
  
She didn't know what he would end up thinking, about the island, about Gon, about her, but by the warmth in her heart she knew she'd already grown to love this pale strange child, and would do her best to provide all the care and support he'd have gotten from his real family. She could never be them, but she hoped she could at least come in close second.

**Author's Note:**

> I really didn't mean for this to be so long; I was thinking I'd fit a whole Killua's-life-story in this length. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to post a sequel later. Thanks for dropping by! =]


End file.
